Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

Let’s Go Shopping at Rikers Island

The view of Hazen Street and 19th Avenue, seen through the glass window of a store that sells equipment used on the job by police and corrections officers. (Photo: Uli Seit for The New York Times)

Recently, a small jewelry store opened at 19-10 Hazen Street in the East Elmhurst section of Queens, a location that gets a highly specific type of traffic, being right next to the bridge that leads to Rikers Island.
One might question the wisdom of opening a jewelry store so close to one of the world’s largest penal colonies. But the shop’s owners — Michael’s Gold Market (“The Leader in Extravagant Jewelry Design”) — selected the location with care, said a man who sat in the shop last week behind bulletproof glass.

“We get inmates’ relatives coming for visiting hours, and they shop here, especially if they have to wait around a while,” said the man, who refused to give his name but said he and his brother owned the shop. “Our best customers are corrections officers. They cash their paychecks right there and come here.”

He pointed to the adjacent business: a check-cashing outlet that offers Western Union with special rates for wiring money into Rikers Island, which on any given day has some 12,000 inmates, a staff of about 9,000 correction officers working and approximately 1,500 visitors.

Another entrepreneur, Christopher Samolis, 26, of Astoria, operates a food truck parked daily near the Rikers bridge, and he also offers many insights about the conditions under which a businessman operates just outside the largest prison in the city.

“They were smart to open the jewelry store,” Mr. Samolis said. “You really have to have a niche to survive in this location, and they have it.”

This location would be where 19th Avenue meets Hazen Street, the northern end of which turns into the Rikers Island Bridge, just west of La Guardia Airport. Mr. Samolis has his niche. He is the only food vendor at the entrance to the jail, where visitors can spend all day trying to get in to see an inmate.

“The higher the crime rate, the better off I do,” said Mr. Samolis, as he hustled, with his brother Michael, 19, to provide hot dogs to customers who had just come off the Q100 Limited bus that runs a loop from the jail to Queensboro Plaza. There are also privately operated vans that shuttle visitors on and off Rikers Island for a $2 fare each way.

Some businesses do not survive here. The Bad Apple Bail Bonds agency is no longer at the location, but its sign still stands: “Are You Tired of Coming to Rikers? We Get Your Loved Ones Out.” The Police Depot is still standing, which sells equipment used on the job by police and corrections officers. Last week, there was a $14.99 sale on pepper spray and a full inventory of Tuf Stik billy clubs made with “100 percent polycarbonate.”

There was a selection of Rikers Island souvenirs, including “Rikers Island Survivor” T-shirts, playing off the “Survivor” television reality show logo, and T-shirts giving an amended version of the Miranda Rights warnings (“You have the right to swing first. However, if you choose to swing first, any move you make can and will be used as an excuse to beat the” – unprintable — “out of you.”)

Also on this block-long lineup of jail-side businesses are administrative offices for Prison Health Services, the Tennessee-based company that contracts with the city to provide inmate health care. And there is a warehouse called Beauty Pioneers that supplies products to pharmacies, discount shops and 99-cent stores. The owner, A. S. Madaan, said he did not do business with Rikers Island and picked the location because of the low rent.

“This is the safest place in the city for your business,” he said. “There are corrections officers around here all the time.”

A man stood near the bridge and handed out laminated fliers to people driving out of the jail parking lot. The fliers advertised happy hour drink specials and chicken wings at Racks, an Astoria bar he called popular with corrections officers.

The check-cashing place typically closes around 6 p.m., but every other Thursday, for payday at Rikers, it remains open until 1 a.m. and employs someone to direct traffic for the many cars seeking to park. Last Thursday, a correction officer who just cashed his check said it was the younger correction officers who tend to cash their checks at the place.

“We’re new on the job and don’t make much, so we need the cash right away,” he said.

The food vendor, Mr. Samolis, said he often gives free food to inmates who are released from Rikers with no money.

“They get released at 6 in the morning with nothing but a $2 MetroCard the jail gives them,” he said. “So I’ll give them a coffee and an egg sandwich, on credit. I know they’re never going to pay it back, but I feel bad for them.” Often, these released inmates wear the orange sneakers that the jail issues.

It is a cruel thing, to have a loved one or friend in the slammer and terribly demoraling to have to be searched and stand around for hours in a barren no man’s land. I think these entreprenuers have found a good specialty niche. And since the visitors have not been found guilty of anything, reducing their suffering a bit, is a good thing.

To the young heroes of the day/Those who now languish/In Jail//I salute your bravery/Which
stormed the June Winter/And shamed lifelong lies/
You are hollowing out there/Your circumsized beings/ As fathers stood by/Faces dipped in despair/
SS

As someone familiar with those who reside at Riker’s, I thought I’d give you my input. Calling it a penal colony is nicer than the reality…It is really a human warehouse where we send the poor, the addicted, and the mentally ill.

“…..a human warehouse where we send the poor, the addicted, and the mentally ill.”
— Posted by bogitiboo
=====================
Sounds like a description of NYCHA to me!
The pity of it is that the first mentioned people are forced by reason of economics to live among members of the latter two groups, also!

For many inmates life in Rikers is better than life at home. In Rikers you have a chance to get out of an abusive relationship, get off drugs, get medical treatment, get a GED, get phycological counciling. And maybe for a very small percentage get a chance to turn your life around.

What's Next

Looking for New York Today?

New York Today is still going strong! Though no longer on City Room, New York Today continues to appear every weekday morning, offering a roundup of news and events for the city. You can find the latest New York Today at nytoday.com or in the morning, on The New York Times homepage or its New York section. You can also receive it via email.

Lookin for Metropolitan Diary?

Metropolitan Diary continues to publish! Since 1976, Metropolitan Diary has been a place for New Yorkers, past and present, to share odd fleeting moments in the city. We will continue to publish one item each weekday morning and a round-up in Monday's print edition. You can find the latest entries at nytimes.com/diary and on our New York section online.

About

City Room®, a news blog of live reporting, features and reader conversations about New York City, has been archived. Send questions or suggestions by e-mail.